A New and Forgotten Soul (Mako Arc)
by limburger588
Summary: Mako suddenly dissapears. But as he comes back everyone learns as to why he had left for so long. A new face with a new beginning.
1. Prologue

PROLOGUE

Bolin ran to the temple, hesitant to tell the group some news, news about Mako. "Guys, guys." He stopped short of breath for a little bit then cleared his throat. "It's Mako, he sent another letter. Well postcard to be exact." Mako four months ago mysteriously left on his own. Others wondered why he left, a reason they speculated was the relationship Korra and Asami, two girls he held dear feelings, now were in love with each other. During work, he became somewhat sloppy here and there, worked late, and became somewhat distant to the girls. The group understood this. However, later Mako claimed he was "busy" and started being distant by taking in night shifts, double even. He then began mumbling to himself and started writing down in a small notebook. If anyone asked what he was writing for, he would shrug it off as "just work" and would continue scribbling. And he would do this frequently sometimes during meals where he was interrupted to stop writing. During shifts, his brother became worried that Mako uses work to drown himself to forgetting his feelings for the two. He would share what he would write to his brother in few instances on cases, but Mako looked like he was always writing, as if Mako was writing for beyond work reasons. Bolin would try to find the notebook and peek what was inside it but Mako always kept in a clever spot, never to be found. One morning, Bolin woke up from his bed next to Mako's. He wondered where Mako was, usually he would wake earlier than him. On his bed was a letter. On the envelope it reads "I'm Sorry" across. Bolin quickly opened the envelope for the letter. The letter would only contain a few sentences. "Sorry I had to leave out of the blue. During work I encountered something that shocked me. During then I had to make sure. Now I'm off to find it. See you." – MAKO Bolin later read the letter to everybody. "What does it say?" Asked Korra. Asami turned to Korra then to Bolin "Is he coming back?" "I finally found what I was looking for." He read with enthusiasm. "But now…" he began to trail off a little "I think I need to find something important. I am going to be gone away longer. Sorry, again" - MAKO. Bolin felt so discouraged, he was gone for so long. "Why did he have to go?" He yelled. Korra puts her hand on his shoulder. "I don't know. Mako sometimes acts on his own and whatever he's looking for, or was looking for seems unreasonable now. Right now all I can say is he's making us wait for a very long time for a very long answer." Bolin looks to Korra. "But why?" "I hope the reason why he left was about me and Korra." Asami said looking down. "I hope so too."

On top of a ridge and valley there were two who were camping. One was tending the meal they were going to eat, and the other was looking at the night sky at the edge of a cliff.

"Hey dinner's almost ready"

"Thanks"

"You've been looking at the stars frequently, you know."

"Have I?"

"Yeah." He knelt up and cleaned his hand with a rag. "And you asked me, to ask you this every now and then…"

"Mmmhhmmm" He said while continuing to gaze up.

"It's been ten months since you and I left my town, to do this…"

"What about it?" "Mako are you by any chance homesick?" He sighed. "Yeah. I think I'm homesick now." He looked back at him.

"Alright then. Are we near by any chance?" He stood up and swept his hands together. "Yeah, it's a week's journey in total from here, I think." "Can't wait to meet them." He said nervously. "Don't' worry they'll like you." He said confidently.

He sighed "Hope so."


	2. The Stranger

Chapter 1

Ikki would usually wake up earlier than anyone else in the house, one of her chores to do early in the morning was to set up the training ground for the students and clean any messes lying around. She got up and carefully and quietly dressed in her bending clothes. She tip-toed across the halls to not wake up from the rest, she got to the kitchen for a quick bite and noticed something smelled nice. "Weird. Mom must be up early to cook the meals for the rest." She looked, and it wasn't her mom, but rather a tall man with kind of medium length dark hair, putting some meals on the table. "I don't remember us looking to hiring a cook." She said slowly. "Who are you?" "Hey uh, who's this one again?" Mako entered out of the kitchen with plates and napkins on hand. "That would be Ikki." Her jaw dropped and looked at him. "Hello, I'm Tomanashi, nice to meet you. I made you some soup for breakfast, Mako told me to mak-." Ikki ran out of the room. "O…kay" He said confusingly. "Does she not like soup?" "No…, it's not that." Mako let out a small sigh.

Ikki ran to Bolin's room. She opened his room with a slam causing Bolin to wake up and the other's as well. "Ikki? As he yawned. "It's 6:45. Why did y-." Ikki grabbed Bolin's hand. "Wake up. Now!" She dragged him out of bed. "At least let me get my slippers." Asami woke up from her room and into the hallway. "Ikki, why are you-." Ikki grabbed her hand and dragged her out as well. "You, as well." "Bolin do you know what's she's on about?" She asked. He yawned. "No idea." They got to the kitchen and she pointed right at Mako. "That." Their eyes were still sleepy, but their eyes widened not long after, their mouths held ajar. It took them a little bit to figure out who it is, he looked different. He had a bit of facial hair with a little on his chin and a bit of side burn and his hair longer at the top. His clothes different, his vest in crimson and white. He then awkward said a "Hi" to them. And smiled.

"Bro?" "Mako?" They said guessingly. "Yes. And yes. It's…it's me. I'm finally home." Mako then stepped to the side held his arms apart. "If you feel the obligation to hit me, do so. I've been gone without saying anything." Bolin clenched a fist and ran to Mako with it, Mako took a deep breath and was ready for it, Bolin aimed for his head, but instead, punched a wooden wall instead. "You Idiot." He softly said to Mako. A bit of tear came down to Bolin. "That I a-ooohh." He hit Mako in the stomach. "Alright. Glad we got that in order. Hey, Ikki go do me a favor and wake up everyone." Ikki nodded and ran back.

Everyone was awake, except for the students of the temple. Everyone was silent at the table, even the kids who were unusually up early, were awake. Tomanashi poured Tenzin and Pema's soup as last. "Here you go sir, ma'am. Don't worry it's vegetarian. Mako told me not to add any meat in your soup." He then hurried back to the kitchen. Tenzin questioned Pema. "I don't remember us hiring a cook. Do you?" She replied. "No, but he's paying for these ingredients."

"So, did you find what you were. Looking for?" Korra asked nonchalantly. "Yeah, it's uh…him." Mako pointed at the kitchen door. "Alright, I got questions for you. Brother." As Bolin took a sip of the soup. "One, who is he? And Two." He took another sip of the soup. "Why does he make delicious soup? And Three." He said louder as he took a sip. "Why were you gone for so long!" Bolin shouted. Mako got up from the table and went to another room and rummaged through his bag. He went back to the dining table. For starters, he is a great cook, he's taught me to cook a few things, while I was gone. Second was because of this." Mako gave Bolin a file. "I kept this to myself before I left. I was skeptical, did some digging during and after work, even during double shifts. Bolin looked at the file, his face became surprised, questioning and shocked at times when he looked through the files. "Wait. No. They even signed it. At that point…" Korra wondered what was puzzling Bolin. "Bolin, what is that?" Bolin stopped and looked at Mako. "These. Are. Adoption papers." Everyone's Jaw dropped, Bumi whispered to his brother and said. "He did the deed." He replied, "That's absurd, he looks a little older than than Mako."

"Mako are you positive about this?" As he asked for confirmation. "Yes." He said reliefly." Did every bit of digging I did on my spare time and during work, I told you. That's why I was so quiet and had my nose stuck on that notepad for so long, kept a journal too." Bolin looked at the file. "He was going to be our brother?" Now everybody's eyebrows were raised and look at the two. "How was he going to be your brother?" Asked Meelo. "Hey, uh Toma, want to tell how all of this happened?" Mako yelled at the kitchen. "Uh, maybe later, I'm busy making second rounds if anybody wanted some. I mean you could explain it to them, if you want to." Mako sat down next to his brother and sipped some of the soup. He let out a sigh. "Alright, I'll give you the shorthand version."

"Okay, apparently my uncle, Eun and his wife Anh, adopted him after they found the baby one early morning by their doorstep. They took him in and raised it him as their own and gave him a family. He cherished them. They were both small time engineers for trains, but when he was ten, a train accident occurred with the tracks not properly aligned, causing dozens to die including his parents. After their death, my parents were notified to take him into custody. My parents agreed and completed the forms and sent it back to a bureau. But eleven days later they were killed, and the papers didn't go through. I found them during on a late-night assignment." Bolin looked at the papers again and looked at the signatures of his mother and father. "He was, however adopted by his piano teacher who lived across not faraway, who she took good care of him.

He didn't have the things he had in his old life, but the was more than contempt. However, it took another turn for the worse. A band of raiders came and attacked his town. His town wasn't equipped with benders that knew how to properly fight, that's why they came. His piano teacher in the other hand, was able to fiercely defend the attackers of the part of town, however, she was old, she couldn't keep up in numbers alone. She then took a pierced earth through the chest. Reinforcements came, too late. He was only fifteen at the time." Mako took a last sip of his soup. "Later on, when he was sixteen he took over of his teacher's business and dropped out of school to support himself."

A year later he discovered what happened to his real parents". He clenched his left hand. "They were dead, weren't they?" Bolin asked with remorse. "Yes. Along with the rest of his clan. Murdered in one night. Somehow, he was saved miraculously, and ended up in the doorsteps of my Uncle and Aunt."

They couldn't believe the words coming out of Mako's mouth and the story he was telling of Tomanashi. Losing parent after parent. Tenzin remembered how his father use to say that he was at one point the last airbender. "Good grief he, went through what my father went through, at one point. When the fire nation wiped out the existence of the airbenders." Bumi asked with concern. "Is the boy okay, I mean mentally. Is he okay?" Mako replied. "Yeah later he found ways to cope his losses, often he would use music to do so and through the years he worked through it. Throughout the years he became happy on his own. Happy with his meaning and his appreciation of life."

"That's a rather long strings of tragedy don't you think?" Asami asked Mako. "Yeah, when I first met him, he thought I was joking that I was his brother, but I gave him the files. He was, very very,much surprised and he started to cry. He offered to stay with him long as I needed. Cause he wanted to know everything about me. He's cried a lot about the idea that he was given another chance of a family. I asked him why? And now you now."

"Anybody wants second?" As Toma came into the dining room. "You guys didn't touch your soup, except for Mako and uhh…Bolin? That's your name, right?" Bolin got up and shook his hand. "Hey um, nice to meet you….?" He trailed off. He put the pot of soup down and shook his hand with a smile. "Tomanashi, but you could just call me Toma." Toma let go and picked up the soup bowl. "You want more?" He then gladly said "Yes." Toma looked at everyone and said. "Come on eat up, it's gonna get cold." Everyone began slurping their breakfast and was surprised by the taste of the soup and enjoyed it. "This is like..." Bumi took spoonsful of the soup. "Like really good. Might be even better than Pema's cooking." Pema looked at him and glared a little. "Although, it could use a few improvements." He said hesitantly. Toma let out a small chuckle. "If anybody wants seconds, or thirds, here's a another serving from this pot." He opened the pot and let out an aroma from the soup and everyone was enthralled of the smell. "You don't mind me cooking lunch, would you ma'am?" Pema looked up in delight. "Sure, yes by any means, go right ahead." She was lucky and thought to herself. "Finally, some rest."

"If you all don't mind I have a phone call to make. Mako went over to a phone near the kitchen, he spunned the dials to 3-1-8. A voice picked up to the phone. "Hello? Yes." Mako paused. "This has better not be a prank you hooligan. Cause I swear, you are…" He interjected. "Hey, it's me, I just want to let you know that I'm here." She interrupted. "I am going to stop you right there. If I'm going to yell at you, I am going to do it to your face." She then hung up the phone, except with a hard clack of the phone. "Well that was going to be a lot shorter than I thought it was going to be." "So, who did you call?" Bolin wondered. "You know. Her. She isn't exactly happy. It was expected." Bolin made a face and came into realization. "Oooohhhhhhhhh. Ohh, oh." He seethed his teeth. "Yeahhhh, she's reaallly mad at you."


	3. Resolve

Mako was waiting by a door, he was expecting it to come down and burst open. "Any minute now." As he whispered to himself. "Mako there is something I have wanted to ask you." Tenzin came behind from Mako. "Yes Tenzin?" Tenzin looked at Mako, something felt different about him, his aura and the way he spoke was much calmer and more confident than he was once, even before he left. "Well it has been more than a year since you left, it seems you've reunited with and we are all happy for you and Bolin to find another member to your family, this must mean a lot." Mako nodded. "Yes, its quite the news for everyone." Tenzin cleared his throat. "Well, I'm glad that was the reason why you left." Mako was confused. "What do you mean?"

"Well you see…everyone thought you had left because of," Mako interrupted. "Because of the girls?"

"Did you?"

Mako took a small breath. "It was. At first."

"Maybe I thought if I left, I would eventually forget the feelings I had for Korra and Asami. Because I thought maybe I was doing myself and them a favor. Work was used to avoid the situation of awkwardness they were kind of feeling from me, and I used it to get away from being heartbroken. And in my honest opinion, me leaving was a smart and dumb idea at the same time." Tenzin raised his brow. "How so?"

"When I convinced Toma to come here, I thought to myself that four months wasn't long enough to find a legitimate answer to get rid of this feeling. So, I suggested we would wonder around the world a bit. Have an adventure of our own, you know have memories of our own. Since his whole life seem to be just surrounded by…", "Sadness". Tenzin this time interrupted. Mako nodded.

"But to be fair we didn't go in a total wanderlust of journey. We've come across those who were in struggle. I've helped families in factories captive by triads escaped and brought justice, and I've helped to feed a starving village at one point." Tenzin was pleased of the things he had been doing without the group. "It seems in some ways you have found ways to be helpful, even if you weren't with us. But if there's one thing I want to ask, is why Jinora did not contact you through spirit connection?"

"She did, but it was during when I left, I told her not to contact me, and I asked her to not keep in contact of me until I come back on my own." Tenzin felt reassured "That's what she told us."

"At one point during the trip I was becoming to realize something, I had a, uh, what's that word? Uhhhhhhh….", he kept snapping his fingers and pointed, "An epiphany, I had an epiphany."

"Of what?"

"I looked at Toma, his past and what he's been through and I looked at my past and what I've been through. And I realized that I've gone through worst than a heartbreak. Losing my parents early on, being blood bended, getting killed by four powerful benders, and nearly sacrificing myself during Kuvira's attack. I then realize there are people who have gone through worse pains than I have. Toma and his losses and Korra who carries a very long burden. I've realized that there are some pains that you make yourself stronger and to get better, but I also know there are some pains you have to stop dwelling on and brace for new ones. When I realized this every town village or city, he and I traveled to, we tried to help as many people, away from pain."

Tenzin's brows were raised, he didn't realize this kind of answer from Mako.

"Tenzin you okay?" Tenzin shook his head. "Yes, I'm very surprised, rather speechless."

Mako closed his eyes. "I'm glad that you seem happy overall with my answer." He opened his eyes "I'm just wondering the three behind that wall over there, and I guess everyone else is fine with that answer?"

"Whhhattttt?" Melo scoffed, "We were all, just, lost that's all." Mako rebutted. "You all live here."

"My apologies Mako, they made me do it." Mako just shrugged. "It's okay. It is kinda funny. He looked at Korra and Asami. "I'm sorry I lef-." Asami waved her hand. "No, you don't have to. We're kind of happy for you. You managed to find a rather great answer for yourself. And well, family." He nodded in thanks. "And I'm happy for you two, and apologies to everyone, especially you Bolin, who I probably made worry about."

WHHHHHHHAAAMMMMMMMMM.

Two heavy doors flew by them. Everyone stepped to the side, except for Tenzin. She walked in.

Mako began to take an apology bow.

"Hey Mako, it's nine o'clock. I finished washing the dishes. Oh and you left your poucccchhhh- Okayyyyyy. walked in a weird moment."


End file.
